Stephen A Smith Unleashed An All Time Terrible Take Quake By Suggesting Nikola Jokic Doesn't Have A Dominant Post Game

Mike Ehrmann. Getty Images.

While it's certainly nothing new that shows like First Take and the like exist mostly so people on those shows can say outrageous things so they go viral and blogs like this are written, sometimes what we hear is so outrageous that it simply cannot be ignored. 

That is the case today when it came to Stephen A Smith's evaluation of Nikola Jokic's post game

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I don't even know where to begin, because there's a lot there to digest. For starters, the faces of both JJ Redick and Jay Williams pretty much tell you everything you need to know

You can sort of understand why Nuggets fans always seem so annoyed with how the team and Jokic in particular are talked about on these shows and the big networks like ESPN. I mean Stephen A is assigned to cover the Finals, he's on all the Finals shows, and he's going on national television questioning or suggesting that Jokic isn't some sort of dominant post player? That because he's not dunking on people like Shaq he's not a dominant post player? How on earth does that make any sense? 

JJ gave Stephen A that post up stat over the last 10 years, but you don't even have to go back that far! You can start just by looking at the 2023 playoffs. Jokic is averaging 1.09 points on 54% shooting in post up possessions in their 18 playoff games. That is better production than the following centers/bigs who I think most would agree are pretty "dominant" post players

Joel Embiid

Giannis

Anthony Davis

During the regular season, Jokic ranked in the 95th percentile in post up offense, averaging 1.22 points per possession shooting 65.5%. As you can expect, this was by far the most dominant post production in the league this season. So right off the bat, it doesn't take much to see that this may be one of the worst takes ever uttered on ESPN, and that's saying something.

But then, in an effort to try and explain how Jokic's post game isn't "dominant" or that he doesn't really have one, he decided to compare it to Kevin McHale. Yes, that's right, arguably one of the best low post players in NBA history

Of course, he tried to spinzone this horrific take by saying it's the style or touch, but even this doesn't make any sense. A post game is only dominant if you drop step and dunk on someone? Yikes. 

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What makes Jokic's post play so devastating isn't just the fact that he can go through pretty much any player he wants, but it's how he also dominates through passing out of the post. Being able to have such a huge impact through that approach outside of just dunking on people like Shaq is what makes Jokic so dominant! 

I will say, it was quite a 24 hours for Stephen A. One minute he's putting out this extremely funny and pretty outrageous (but in a good way) take on the Zion situation

and then this morning, after Jokic goes for 30-20-10 to take a 2-1 series lead in the Finals, he gives us that post up take. I mean the guy gets paid the big bucks for a reason, and I believe in the biz they call that having "range".

But man, he probably should have thought that one through a little more.